Energy consumption in commercial and residential buildings is a very expensive component of the cost of operating and maintaining a building. For example, commercial buildings have expensive air conditioning and heating needs that, over the lifetime of the building(s), often add up to more than double the initial cost for construction. Attempts over the years to reduce energy consumption have resulted in adding substantial increases in construction costs that are often not recouped over the short term.
Buildings represent approximately 40% of the energy used in the United States and are fueled almost entirely with fossil fuels that are expensive and damaging to the environment. Further, there are a number of problems that make building heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems inefficient. These problems include: (1) pressure to keep construction costs low by purchasing inexpensive, wasteful HVAC systems; (2) wasting potentially useful energy rejected through chillers, etc. rather than moving it to where it is needed or storing it for later use; (3) high energy movement through walls because of inadequate insulation; (4) constantly reheating and re-cooling the building mass rather than holding it at temperature; (5) overbuilt, inefficient systems that could be made much smaller; (6) the inability to effectively use local energy (e.g. solar, body heat, etc.); (7) heating the building when the heating system is least efficient and likewise cooling the building when the cooling system is least efficient; and (8) the expense of renewable energy sources. The need thus exists for an energy and cost-efficient heating and cooling system.
Further, According to the DoE report “Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) HUB Intelligent Building Operations (Task 4) Overview” presented at the DOE BTO Sensors and Controls Program and Project Review, May 21, 2013, intelligent building energy operations have not been broadly used largely because of two major problems. First, it is expensive and time consuming to custom design every individual building and then design the control system for the building. Second, once the building and the intelligent control system are designed, there is a costly process for creating and programming the controls then commissioning them in the building. However, if intelligent building energy operations can be applied in a cost-effective and timely manner, market barriers to wide-spread adoption would be significantly reduced. Accordingly, a need exists for intelligent cost-efficient building energy operations.